Cooking recipe books

It's been a while since we had lamb chops. I bought a lamb rack from Beechcroft Farm and decided to cook it simple and make a homemade mint sauce to go alongside it. The chops were delicious. The mint sauce was nothing like the shop-bought one. It is not a bright green jelly! It has a dull colour and it's watery so we had the chopped mint leaves and left the water. The leaves tasted just like mint sauce. Homemade just looks less aesthetic. Recipe from Darian Allen's Forgotten skills of cooking . Serves: 2 persons. Ingredients: 1 Kg lamb rack (6-7 chops) For the mint sauce: 15g fresh mint leaves, finely chopped 1.5 tsp sugar 15ml white wine vinegar or lemon juice (I used lemon juice) 50ml boiling water salt & pepper to taste Method: First thing I had to do was to make chops from the rack. Not an easy taste without a saw!! Half the spine bone was still attached so I had to bypass it and cut around the meat. In the end it wasn't as difficult as I had assumed. Season th...

Another typical Portuguese dessert with a childhood favourite: Maria biscuits. Delicious mix of plenty of biscuits and butter with a hint of coffee. What else? Serves: 12 persons. Ingredients: 250g butter 250g caster sugar 2 egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla paste 400g Maria biscuits 210ml coffee  coffee beans (optional) Method: Whisk the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla paste and whisk. Soak each biscuit in coffee and plate it. One biscuit in the centre and 6 biscuits around. Be careful not to soak them too much as they will turn into mush. Spread the butter mixture on top evenly with a palette knife. Keep adding layers of biscuits and butter mixture. I made 9 layers and had 8 biscuits left for decoration but it was too much. I would recommend making 10 layers (70 biscuits) and leave 1 biscuit left for decoration. When the layers are done, spread the remaining butter mixture on top and around the cake. Grind the remaining biscuit and add the p...

Asparagus. Again. Of course! This recipe is from Delia online and very tasty it is! Serves:  4 persons (starter) or 2 persons (main). Ingredients: 450g asparagus, stalks removed 4 eggs 25g butter 25g plain flour 225ml milk 50g gruyère cheese, grated parmesan to taste, grated paprika to taste (the recipe called for cayenne) salt & pepper to taste Method: Steam the asparagus for 4-6 min and add them to a gratin dish in 4  even-size bundles. Poach the eggs and add one on top of each asparagus bunches. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Make the cheese sauce: Melt the butter in a small saucepan, stir in the flour until smooth and then gradually add the milk, whisking continuously until you have a smooth sauce.  Add the gruyère and whisk until melted. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Pour the cheese sauce over the asparagus and eggs. Sprinkle with parmesan and paprika to taste. Place the dish under the grill and let it brown very quickly, a minute or so. S...

Never have I cooked with chicory. It's also a difficult vegetable to find. Waitrose was the only supermarket I managed to find it in. I was curious to cook with it. I know it is also used in salads but this soup caught my eye. I made a few changes in the amount of chicory and chickpeas and it is a very good soup! I used as a guide a recipe from  www.gourmettraveller.com.au. Serves: 4 persons Ingredients: 1 bacon slice, chopped 200g onions (1 large onion), chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 fresh rosemary sprig (I used 2 dried sprigs) 250g chickpeas, cooked 250g chicory 1 litre chicken stock olive oil to taste salt & pepper to taste Method: Chop the chicory. In a frying pan, fry the onions, garlic, bacon and rosemary in olive oil until tender, about 10 min. Reserve. Add half the chickpeas (125g) to a soup pan with the chicken stock. Let it reach boiling point and then blitz it. Add the remaining chickpeas and the fried ingredients (onion, rosemary, bacon) and cook for a further...

When I was a child I hated liver. My dislike never deterred my parents and they kept cooking it and force feeding me... It took me 2 decades to realise that what I don't like is pork liver, which is exactly what my mother used to cook. I have since had chicken and calves liver and I like it very much. Calves liver has the best taste and it is delicious cooked with onions.  The onions can be fully caramelised  with the vinegar  before cooking the liver but I prefer to add the vinegar and liver together as I prefer a 'vinegar-tasting liver'. This recipe is simple, only has 3 ingredients and it's quick. Serves: 2 persons. Ingredients: 2 calves liver steaks (around 250g) 200g onions (1 large onion), cut in half and sliced 40ml white vinegar (I used rice vinegar) olive oil to taste salt & pepper to taste Method: Fry the onions in olive oil until they are soft and slightly golden. Add the white vinegar and mix with the onions. Add the calves liver and cook a few minutes e...

When I go to London I try to pop into the Japan Centre near Piccadilly to get some Japanese pantry supplies. On my last visit, as I was browsing the shelfs, I discovered slices of matcha marble cake. Green tea instead chocolate. Wow! What an amazing idea! I used my marble cake recipe and simply switched the chocolate for green tea powder. It has a subtle matcha taste so anyone can enjoy this cake, not just matcha aficionados. This time I decided to use a square tin. My brand new Fat Daddios 9 x 9 inches (22 x 22cm) tin. I was so excited about using it that I buttered the tin but completely forgot to flour it. The cake was half-way it's cooking time when I remembered. I thought the cake would be impossible to remove from the tin. To my utter surprise, it came out of the tin effortless! Damn good tins these are!! Serves:   12 slices. Ingredients: 250g sugar 125g butter 5 eggs 320g plain flour 3.5 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 tbsp green tea powder 150ml milk Method: Cre...